Apple Watch's New High Blood Pressure Notifications Developed With AI (msn.com) 34
Many Apple Watches will soon be able to alert users about possible high blood pressure, reports Reuters — culminating six years of research and development:
Apple used AI to sort through the data from 100,000 people enrolled in a heart and movement study it originally launched in 2019 to see whether it could find features in the signal data from the watch's main heart-related sensor that it could then match up with traditional blood pressure measurements, said Sumbul Ahmad Desai [Apple's vice president of health]. After multiple layers of machine learning, Apple came up with an algorithm that it then validated with a specific study of 2,000 participants.
Apple's privacy measures mean that "one of the ironies here is we don't get a lot of data" outside of the context of large-scale studies, Desai said. But data from those studies "gives us a sense of, scientifically, what are some other signals that are worth pulling the thread on ... those studies are incredibly powerful."
The feature, which received approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, does not measure blood pressure directly, but notifies users that they may have high blood pressure and encourages them to use a cuff to measure it and talk to a doctor. Apple plans to roll out the feature to more than 150 countries, which Ami Bhatt, chief innovation officer of the American College of Cardiology, said could help people discover high blood pressure early and reduce related conditions such as heart attacks, strokes and kidney disease. Bhatt, who said her views are her own and do not represent those of the college, said Apple appears to have been careful to avoid false positives that might alarm users. But she said the iPhone maker should emphasize that the new feature is no substitute for traditional measurements and professional diagnosis.
The article notes that the feature will be available in Apple Watch Series 11 models that go on sale on Friday, as well as models back to the Apple Watch Series 9.
Apple's privacy measures mean that "one of the ironies here is we don't get a lot of data" outside of the context of large-scale studies, Desai said. But data from those studies "gives us a sense of, scientifically, what are some other signals that are worth pulling the thread on ... those studies are incredibly powerful."
The feature, which received approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, does not measure blood pressure directly, but notifies users that they may have high blood pressure and encourages them to use a cuff to measure it and talk to a doctor. Apple plans to roll out the feature to more than 150 countries, which Ami Bhatt, chief innovation officer of the American College of Cardiology, said could help people discover high blood pressure early and reduce related conditions such as heart attacks, strokes and kidney disease. Bhatt, who said her views are her own and do not represent those of the college, said Apple appears to have been careful to avoid false positives that might alarm users. But she said the iPhone maker should emphasize that the new feature is no substitute for traditional measurements and professional diagnosis.
The article notes that the feature will be available in Apple Watch Series 11 models that go on sale on Friday, as well as models back to the Apple Watch Series 9.
Re: I love you Apple (Score:2)
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What's the problem? ML is AI.
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Yes. These days anything at all is AI and will continue to be until this meaningless cliche stops to sell.
Re: I love you Apple (Score:2)
ML has always been a category of AI.
I've got books from decades ago referencing ML as The AI category's biggest wins.
Also, using AI to train a model for categorization of data has been with us since the 80s. Its effectiveness has increased of course.
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AI is very broad and has been so since the the term was coined in 1956. It covers a lot of things that you personally don't consider 'AI', but what you think doesn't matter. The time to object was almost 70 years ago. You should probably get over it.
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they are usually referring to LLMs and the potential for AGI in that direction
Yes, stupid people often believe stupid things. That doesn't mean it's wrong for experts to use their own terms correctly.
I get it. It feels deceptive when marketing uses the term 'AI' correctly, but what else do you expect them to do? Add needless qualifications like "we use AI, but not the chat bot kind"? That's silly. Besides, you really wouldn't want to use an LLM for this application anyway. That wouldn't make any sense.
ML itself has been around for a while now, and in some ways is considered just basic tech.
What a bizarre statement. What on earth do you think that means? Considere
I have BAD White Coat Syndrome... (Score:5, Interesting)
I have really bad White Coat Syndrome. When I go to the doctor's office my blood pressure is always very high, as in they always freak out.
However when I leave the doctor's office and go home, my --multiple-- blood pressure machines always have a reasonably normal reading.
I found this out, because every doctor I've ever been to wants to put me on a higher dose of BP meds, and when I go on them, I get dizzy. Then on the follow up visit they say, I still have HBP and need to increase the dose again. Then I pass out in my living room a few days later. This has happened with three different doctors over about 10 years. New doctors think I am crazy and don't want to believe me. It's super frustrating.
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Measuring blood pressure properly is kind of hard.
It could be you measuring it incorrectly, the doctor measuring it incorrectly, or both.
So not really surprising that you get widely diverging measurements.
Re: I have BAD White Coat Syndrome... (Score:2)
No.
Consist deviated under the two circumstances is pretty well studied. A substantial number of readings in a doctors office are high. Within certain margins it's accounted for, obviously there are people that exhibit the effect more than others.
But taking blood pressure correctly is generally not difficult, can be readily trained for and if necessary can be demonstrated easily by both parties.
Getting results which are consistent, wrong, but approximately in the correct range is actually quite hard.
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Taking the blood pressure correctly consists of
In my experience this has rarely happened in a doctors office. How many people sit on the table with legs dangling and having a conversation while their BP is being measured?
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All you should need to do is take your own readings in. I normally take in one reading a day for the past 7, plus my resting heartrate, plus my weight. Saves time and lets them address other needs.
Re: I have BAD White Coat Syndrome... (Score:2)
Have you seen these things?
https://hilo.com/ [hilo.com]
Been thinking about getting one myself. It looks way more useful than Appleâ(TM)s approach of just sending a notification because it gives you a log with real numbers. The only downside for me is I hate wearing things on my wrist, although it is narrower than an Apple Watch.
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They have BP units that compensate for this. Basically it will take a bunch of readings automatically. The doctor will put the cuff on your arm, have you lie down on the exam bed, then start the machine. He will then leave the room and see other patients.
The machine will over the course of half an hour to an hour, take a reading. It will do it relatively randomly every few minutes. All you have to do is lie there and close your eyes and relax. This will not be the absolute more accurate reading, but it can
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By the time I get there all the anxiety I feel has melted away because the exercise has taken the edge off. Give me 10 minutes in the waiting room and my heart has slowed back down to resting rate.
For me, just being at the Dr. Office causes it. Medical, dental, hospitals, all give me terrible anxiety. It stems from an operation I had as an infant. It's just engrained into my brain that these places are bad. Its irrational, but the second I leave the facility the anxiety goes away.
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AI? (Score:2)
Apple Intelligence? Aritificial intelligence? Artificial ingredients?
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Al Bundy.
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Why should you waste time selecting equipment and learning how to use it properly to measure something, when the "AI" can give you an answer right now and for a much, much lower price*?
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* per measurement at hospital prices, excluding the initial purchase cost, with accuracy limits as described in the small print, if in doubt see your doctor, any and all liability declined.
Measuring blood pressure indirectly (Score:2)
Even though you're apparently feeding a troll, I think there is a more substantive answer involving a solution approach that would involve 'light AI' technology. It's actually a topic I've been researching for some years, even though the doctors have never really convinced me I need to worry about my blood pressure.
So the fundamental problem is that most direct (external) measurements of blood pressure involve comparing the blood pressure to air pressure, so they take a substantial amount of power to pressu
Re:does not measure blood pressure directly (Score:4, Informative)
There's this really amazing concept you're going to learn about one day, AC, called a proxy. It turns out that in medicine, very often, you can measure a proxy to give you an indication about an underlying biological process. The proxy is not as good as measuring directly, but is better than not measuring at all.
Here's some other examples of proxies: all diagnostic signs and symptoms of Alzheimer's on living patients (gold standard Dx requires post-mortem histopathological review of brain tissue); heart failure, where we cannot measure neurohormonal dysregulation that actually causes the issue directly; and ironically, hypertension itself, where blood pressure readings at the arm are themselves a proxy for vascular resistance and cardiac output within the entire circulatory system, because noone is getting central aortic pressure routinely measured.
I hate the stupidity of your comment. The use of ML to discover new pattersn that act as good proxies for disease has been, and will continue to be, hugely beneficial for human health, reducing undiagnosed chronic disease and prompting interventions that will allow people to live healthier, longer lives. And then sneering little know-nothing twerps like you come along and think you have discovered some reason it wouldn't work, based on nothing but misplaced overconfidence in your own abilities and a predetermination that the biomedical scientists, engineers and clinicians who have worked on this were both stupid and venal.
This is sci-fi yo (Score:1)
With AI? That's the story? (Score:1)
Up your game.
Is it FDA approved? (Score:4, Interesting)
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Big fat no from me (Score:2)